Strangers with Candy (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Strangers With Candy | |
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| Directed by | Paul Dinello |
| Produced by | Jennifer Boot |
| Written by | Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Mitch Rouse |
| Starring | Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Greg Hollimon |
| Music by | Lodge Worster |
| Cinematography | Oliver Bokelberg |
| Distributed by | ThinkFilm |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Strangers With Candy is a film released in 2006 by ThinkFilm, first screened at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It is a prequel to the TV show Strangers with Candy. Among the executive producers was David Letterman.
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[edit] Synopsis
Jerri Blank, a former high school dropout and self-described "junkie whore", is released from prison and returns to her childhood home. She discovers her mother has died, her father (Dan Hedaya) has remarried to the hateful Sara Blank (Deborah Rush) and she has an annoying half-brother Derrick (Joseph Cross). To make matters worse, her father is in a "stress-induced coma." Taking the suggestion of the family doctor (Ian Holm) literally, Jerri decides to pick her life back up where she started, beginning her high school all over again as a freshmen at Flatpoint High.
Jerri joins Chuck Noblet's (Stephen Colbert) science fair team, the Fig Neutrons, along with her new friends Megawatti Sucarnaputri (a spoof on Megawati Sukarnoputri) and Tammi Littlenut. Noblet is not pleased to learn that Flatpoint's Principal Onyx Blackman (Greg Hollimon) has hired a ringer for their team (played by Matthew Broderick) to ensure that Flatpoint wins, and so Noblet creates a second team. As she struggles to fit in and make her teammates proud, Jerri discovers that though the faces have changed, the hassles of high school are just the same.
[edit] Production
Writer/star Amy Sedaris admitted in an interview that they never intended on making a film after the series was cancelled, stating, "Paul, Steve, and I were working on our book Wigfield ... We kept coming up with funny Jerri Blank stuff to say, so it would go into a file, and by the end of the book, Paul opened the file and there was all this Blank stuff, and he said, 'Oh, it would be so funny to write a movie.' That's really how it happened."[1]
[edit] Cast
The film's cast includes:
- Amy Sedaris as Geraldine "Jerri" Blank
- Stephen Colbert as Chuck Noblet
- Paul Dinello as Geoffrey Jellineck
- Greg Hollimon as Principal Onyx Blackman
- Deborah Rush as Sara Blank
- Dan Hedaya as Guy Blank
- Ian Holm as Dr. Putney
- Joseph Cross as Derrick Blank
- Carlo Alban as Megawatti Sacarnaputri
- Maria Thayer as Tammi Littlenut
The film also features small roles from several major stars:
- Matthew Broderick as Roger Beekman
- Sarah Jessica Parker as Peggy Callas
- Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry
- Allison Janney as Alice
- Justin Theroux as Carlo Honklin
- Kristen Johnston as Coach Divers
[edit] Characters not returning
- Orlando Pabotoy chose not to reprise his role as Orlando Pinotubo because he was tired of the character being the subject of racist jokes.[citation needed] His character was then replaced by the similar Megawatti Sacarnaputri.
- Larc Spies did not return for the role of Derrick Blank because, according to Amy Sedaris, "he looks like a longshoreman now."
Several other characters were re-cast because the original actors looked too old to believeably play high schoolers.
[edit] References
- ^ Gillette, Amelie. "The Onion A.V. Club Interview: Amy Sedaris", AVClub.com June 28, 2006.
